Hoults, Huddersfield Saying goodbye to a few sacred cows as range evolves
£75 and is their super cuvée – it’s delicious. Vintage Roederer, Vintage Henriot, Vintage Taittinger – no problem there; great wines. “We are set up more for people to come
in and do a bigger shop – we are not high footfall so we really want people buying
cases of things. When you’re looking at £45 for a Veuve Clicquot as a regular price …
even with the slightly ostentatious nature there.
“We always used to have Krug, Cristal
dmittedly, Champagne sales are
and Dom Perignon in stock, but we’re not
down at Hoults – “we don’t do
interested any more, to be honest. Krug
anywhere near as much as we
used to do”, says owner Rob Hoult. But over the summer there was a small recovery in sales, particularly for weddings, for
which Prosecco has fallen out of favour.
“Champagne will always say ‘Champagne’
on it, so it’s much easier to sell,” Hoult says. The company’s best-selling Champagne
at retail is Lallier from Boutinot. “You’ve
got a 100% grand cru: really good quality, sensible price, looks smart, tastes great.” Hoults also maintains a selection of
grande marque Champagnes for customers buying gifts.
“They’re going to look at Veuve Clicquot,
and Taittinger works well,” says Hoult.
“For the brands we probably sell more
Taittinger than anything else. We’re just
about to put both feet firmly in the Henriot camp for Christmas and see how that
works. It’s a soft brand – some people are aware of it. It’s a terrific Champagne first and foremost.”
Hoult: a demi-sec and scrambled eggs guy
specialises in as an independent.
“In days gone past when Tesco would let
me buy online in tangible quantities I had
no problem with buying a pallet of Moët &
Chandon when it was cheap enough. When we had a corner shop, before we were a
wine merchant, we used to sell Moët by the dozen at £119, but that was 1986.
“We’ve got Veuve Clicquot on the shelf,
but I don’t stock Moët now. It’s like Laurent Perrier Rosé used to be a thing that
everyone had to have, and now it isn’t.” Hoult is happy to list a few prestige
and luxury cuvées, but makes a judicious selection.
“We do Ouvrage from Lallier, which is
Grand Cru is a delicious drop and all that,
but there are other places in Huddersfield that do stock them and we can get access
to them if people want them to order. But
you’re running the risk of shelf ornaments if you’re not careful.”
Hoult has little time for the zero-dosage
fad. “I’ve just no interest in it,” he says. “I tend to find it a bit too clever for its own good – a bit like ‘look what we can do because we’re bored’.
“We should be pushing demi-sec. If my
chronology is correct, Champagne was
originally rich rather than demi-sec, so that
lower dosage to get to brut is a fairly recent addition.
“If I want a bottle of Champagne for
Christmas, it’s demi-sec. Christmas day morning, demi-sec Champagne, with scrambled eggs on toast.”
Hoult is wary of relying too much on
big-name Champagne because of the
risk of being undercut by supermarket promotions.
“I’m happy to have brands on my shelf;
I’m very happy to have Taittinger on my
shelf even with what happens to the price
because the Champagne is very good,” says Hoult. He argues that it’s useful to have
“some known brands that people can relate to” as well as the more esoteric fare that he
Who wants Prosecco at their wedding?
THE WINE MERCHANT OCTOBER 2018 47
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of spending these days, it’s still a bit out-